The rapid growth of AI and cryptocurrency technology has had a huge impact on the growth of criminal enterprises. As they become more sophisticated they conduct their fraudulent businesses further under the radar, hidden from your view.
But they can’t hide from us. At Company Watch we use cutting-edge technology to provide the most robust EDD checks and reporting on the market. Let’s look at how we can arm you with the power of an investigative journalist so that you can conduct your business with confidence.
A recent study placed the UK as second in the world for money laundering. In today’s high-risk environment, hypervigilance is now a necessity. Conducting business with high-risk companies means enhanced due diligence is an essential process. If your EDD process isn’t comprehensive, you're risking financial and reputational damage.
When should you conduct enhanced due diligence?
Enhanced due diligence is an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) process, required when business partnerships need a higher level of scrutiny. As fraud and money laundering rise in the UK, the government has tightened regulations. Here are some examples of when you’ll be required to conduct EDD:
- Entities are from high-risk third countries
- Entities are Politically Exposed Persons
- Transactions involve high-risk industries
- Entities include high-net-worth individuals with complex business structures
- Entities have a history of criminal activity
- Businesses with significant cash transactions
Advancing technology is making it increasingly difficult to uncover risks hidden deep on the internet. With global fines for AML non-compliance increasing by 50% year on year, it can feel overwhelming. We’re here to help.
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Deep web insights
A standard EDD check may only use Google to collect information. This search only covers only 4-6% of the internet, leaving plenty of opportunity for criminal behaviour to go unnoticed.
At Company Watch, we use our uniquely developed tools to help you shine a light into the corners of the deep and dark web. We scour through more than 600bn archived web resources and 202m corporate records. If there’s something nefarious lurking from your view, we’ll find it.
Here are just some of the sources we use to conduct our commercial due diligence:
- Comprehensive web search - We conduct a surface web and deep web search to uncover red flags.
- Employee and client reviews - We comb through review sites like Glassdoor and flag negative reviews.
- Social media accounts - With access to more than 300 platforms, we conduct data analysis of a company’s content and any content posted about the company by others.
- Press & media - We search through open source and proprietary media databases covering over 40,000 media sources.
- Corporate records - We can access both active and inactive corporate records, with over 202 million records available in our global repository.
- Cached information - We check for and analyse cached versions of 600bn+ webpages.
- Network risk analysis - We conduct a thorough analysis, including social media content analysis, PEP and sanctions, regulatory and law enforcement database searches, and adverse internet checks.
- Breached data sources - We probe the dark web to check for breached and compromised data.
- Court & regulatory databases - We conduct court & regulatory checks in the company’s jurisdictions.
Bulletproof reporting
Our marketing-leading Enhanced Due Diligence Reports provide a comprehensive, easily digestible risk analysis. Once we’ve gathered our deep web insights and other relevant data, the information is analysed and presented using interactive charts and detailed explanations.
Key risks are highlighted in our simple Risk Alert Matrix:
Risk Alert Matrix
Using a traffic light system, our Risk Alert Matrix breaks down various risk categories into three colour-coded levels of risk: No evidence (Grey), Area of interest (Yellow), Area of concern (Red). The risk categories include:
- Reputational risk - Checks for employee and client reviews, suspicious online activity and illegal activity.
- Discrepancy risk - Checks for corporate inconsistencies.
- Adverse, PEP & Sanctions check - Checks for adverse media, high-risk jurisdictions and sanctions.
- Regulatory risk - Checks for regulatory actions or notices.
- Significant individuals - Checks for individual adverse media, political exposure and behavioural risk.
- Related companies - Checks employee and client reviews, adverse media and sanctions.
Any flagged risks are then explained in a detailed summary along with the company's other background and financial information. This gives you a clear picture of risk and control over your EDD process.
Ongoing Monitoring
As well as providing you with unmatched investigative power, we make sure you’re covered for future changes. Customer and supplier circumstances are constantly changing. Our daily monitoring makes sure you never miss a beat, and don’t run foul of AML regulations.
PEP and Sanctions
Identifying Politically Exposed Persons is vital for EDD. PEPs are individuals who hold public positions of influence and are more susceptible to corruption.
They can pose a significant risk to your business if they go unnoticed. The broad criteria for identifying a PEPs means it’s not always a simple task. A PEP could be a high-ranking government official, a religious leader, an influential business person or a judge. The family members and close associates of these individuals are also considered PEPs.
Our PEP and Sanctions data can help streamline the process. It is easily incorporated into your Know Your Customer (KYC) processes so individuals and organisations are flagged automatically as high risk.
Ready to supercharge your investigative powers with our enhanced due diligence solutions?
